The continuing decrease in manufacturing costs of electronic imaging devices, combined with increasing functionality and enhanced user interfaces, have led to increased and widespread usage. Electronic cameras and video cameras are found not only as freestanding devices used to document trips and preserve memories, but also for communication. For example, such devices may be incorporated into computers or used as computing peripherals to permit video conferencing, video chatting and so on.
Most electronic imaging devices employ a photosensor made of a grid of light-sensitive pixels. These pixels may measure the intensity of light impacting them. By aggregating these measurements, images may be created. However, the individual pixels generally are poor at sensing or reporting particular colors of light. Accordingly, a filter may be used to restrict the colors that impact any given pixel. As one example, a Bayer filter is often used to limit light impacting each pixel to red, green or blue light.
Given that each pixel only senses a particular color of light and the positions of each such pixel are known, color data may be extrapolated from constituent red, green and blue images formed by those pixels sensing each respective color. In this manner, color images may be created.
However, conventional single-chip color image sensors typically have fewer pixels dedicated to sensing red and blue image planes as compared to the green image plane, since red and blue light contributes less to the human eye's overall perception of resolution (e.g., luminance) than does green light. Further, many present color image sensors must strike a balance between resolution and noise in a picture. As resolution increases, so too may noise. This, in turn, leads to degradation and artifacting of the color image.